By Debbie Schlussel

When Israel dismantled a few Palestinians’ “homes” on the border of Gaza to stop terrorist attacks on its citizens, the world was outraged.  But the Israelis had a legitimate reason:  the houses were used as cover for tunnels from Rafah, the Gaza town on the border with Egypt, through which weapons, homicide bombs, and actual Islamic terrorists themselves, were being smuggled for upcoming attacks against innocent civilians.  And the Islamic world used this as a PR ploy with all the phony “outrage” that accompanies it, with each of the oil-rich gulf sheiks giving a few thousand dollars to rebuild the houses and the US taxpayer-funded UN agency UNRWA paying the bulk of the rebuilding costs for these terrorism shelters.

HAMASnik Nidal Eid & The Rubble of His HAMAS-Destroyed Home

Now, though, HAMAS is tearing down actual Palestinian homes in Gaza.  Homes where Palestinian families who support HAMAS–or used to, until now–live.  And HAMAS has no legitimate reason to seize the homes, just like I told you the group has been doing with Palestinian condominiums all over Gaza, even seizing an apartment from a woman when she was away caring for her cancer-stricken father-in-law.  It just wants the land, so it is kicking families out and razing their homes.  Yup–shocker!–HAMAS is a statist terrorist group government that literally terrorizes its own citizens.  Can’t say they don’t deserve it.  It’s kinda poetic justice.  The lack of world outrage, though, is noticeable.  When an Israeli tears down homes used to shelter terrorists, he’s a “Nazi.”  But when HAMAS terrorists tear down an actual family dwelling–actually 40 of them with many more slated for seizure and destruction–crickets chirping.

RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Hamas police wielding clubs beat and pushed residents out of dozens of homes in the southern Gaza town of Rafah on Sunday before knocking the buildings down with bulldozers, residents said.

Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers said the homes were built illegally on government land. Newly homeless residents were furious over Palestinians on bulldozers razing Palestinian homes.

For years, Palestinians have criticized Israel for destroying houses. . . .  Now, Rafah residents complained, their own government, run by the Islamic militant Hamas that seized power in Gaza in July 2007, has done the same.

“They promised reform and change — instead they’ve destroyed our homes,” shouted Miasar Gan, a 54-year-old woman. Gan said she and her husband had nowhere else to go.

“I found my mattress, and that’s where I’ll be sitting,” she said, standing next to the concrete chunks — all that was left of her house.

Her neighbor, Nazira Abu Jara, 56, said policewomen wearing face veils typical of conservative Muslim women beat her with clubs until she fled her house with her husband and two children. “Neighbors help us get by with charity. We can’t afford to build again,” Abu Jara said.

Others picked through rubble to retrieve dusty clothing and mangled furniture.

Residents said between 30 and 40 homes were torn down, ranging from concrete structures to tin shacks. They did not know how many people were affected. Hamas officials did not allow reporters into the area until the demolition was over.

Residents said more demolitions in the area were expected Monday.

More:

Nidal Eid was praised by Hamas officials as an example of anti-Zionist resistance when he managed to build a house here [Rafah, Gaza] last year. . . . But earlier this week, his house was the first to be demolished by the Hamas government, which said it had been illegally built on public land.

Bulldozers, accompanied by Hamas forces and police officers who beat residents with sticks, razed at least 25 houses, including some concrete structures here in Rafah, the southernmost city of Gaza.

“A bulldozer placed its shovel on the house and the policemen said we have 10 minutes to leave the home,” said Mr. Eid, 30, a father of nine, the youngest of whom was 15 days old when the house was destroyed. . . .

People could be seen sitting on the debris of their houses or in tents, some women burying their faces in their hands. Crowds gathered to offer comfort to relatives or just to witness the demolitions. . . .

The idea that Hamas is now destroying some of those few homes has shocked people here.

Need Your House Dismantled?: Ask HAMAS “Remodeling,” Inc.

Mimi al-Huwari, 60, is an Egyptian who lived for two years in “a room, kitchen and a toilet built with the help of the good doers” after her Palestinian husband divorced her. Now that her house has been destroyed, she said, “my family is in Egypt, and I don’t have anybody here. I have a son whose one-room home is barely enough for his six-children family.”

So far, Hamas officials are not backing down.

Even more:

The land has been owned by their families since the 1940s.

Issa Al-Sdodi, an employee of the previous Fatah-led administration, said Hamas policemen accompanied by bulldozers knocked down his three-storey house without advance notice.

“I put my savings into building it and now my family of 10 is homeless.” . . .

Hmmm . . . so the land and house has been in his family and intact the entire time that Israeli controlled Gaza. Very interesting. And yet, just after a few years of Palestinian control, HAMAS destroys it. Nice contrast.

Fatheya al-Ghezawi, 52, sat in the sand with her daughter near the rubble of her home, which had housed her family of 15.

She said she fled Gaza city last year . . . . “This time, it wasn’t the Jews. It is Islam against Islam,” Ghezawi said.

PUH-LEEZE. It’s always Islam against Islam. So sad, too bad. This was soooo predictable. They are impossible to get along with and can’t even make peace with each other. This isn’t even Sunni v. Shi’ite. It’s within HAMAS. Hilarious. And yet, so same ‘ol, same ‘ol.

HAMAS versus HAMAS supporters who put the group in power. Not sure for whom to root, but I know it’s a feud I wish could last forever and that both sides would lose.